Monday, August 23, 2010

Went to check out the flake near Foxford, Rooskey, Lough Easkey, Aughris and some grit over the weekend. The flake near Foxford isn't that exciting, there are a few steep problems and its an usual piece of rock. Rooskey wasn't too bad there are a few nice problems on rough granite. I'm not really a fan of Lough Easkey, the rock is a bit too rough - very similar to Derryrush - but there are a good few problems there. Aughris was brilliant. We arrived as the high tide was going out and had a great session. The cave on the right facing out was as dry as I have seen it and the sand was about 4 feet lower than when I was last there. There are some incredible sloper problems there. The grit was amazing, the rock quality is as good as the Peak, unfortunantly we were rained off before we had a chance to play on the most impressive looking of the boulders. Will be back though.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

On Saturday went up Glenmalure with Tim and Quigs. Walked up to Foxburrow from Ballinafushogue, took 1.5 hours, bit of a slog in the heat. I had hopes that there was more easy problems to do here but it didn't work out all the boulders are just a bit too small to be worthwhile - especially considering the walk in. We tried to trundle a huge block but no dice. Checked out the leaning block with the splitter crack on the hillside above Art's Lough, its no good. Too high, steep landing, rock is a bit chossy and very dirty. Walked down to Fraughan Rock and Tim repeated Teanga Ghorm in fine style. While Quigs and I ate Fraughans. .
On the way back to the car I spotted and caught a lizard.

We also spotted some mysterious boulderers. Well we assumed they were boulderers as they seemed to be hanging around some steep rocks high up the hillside, was it you?

Was planning to head to Portrane yesterday but the morning was a bit dank so we missed the tide window. Went to Cloghoge in the afternoon. Was very sunny with a strong breeze so quite pleasant summer bouldering conditions. I haven't been climbing much lately but I found everything much harder than usual and some of the grades in the latest version of the guide are severe sandbags - I think.

Lotto - the left corner of the Hobbition wall is nails. Anyone done it?
The SS problem on the LHS of the left of the Two Towers problems
The right handcrack line on the right of the Two Towers problem. So scary crux right at the top.
The problem left of Exfoliator is impossible, I could of sworn I did this before but couldn't get close yesterday. Any one have any beta for these problems?

Its a very nice spot though. Had a swim in one of the pools. September would be the prefect time for a visit. Warm water, no ferns, nuts.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Alot of other guidebooks seem to detail how many problems in each grade range are in each area. I have tried this. Yellow would be up to 4+, Blue 5 to 5+, Red 6a to 6c+, Black 7a onwards. Is this worth doing?

Note the spelling of Cloghoge I presonally prefer Cloghogue but will go with the OS on this one.